Cleansing Needed - [Hebrews 9:1-10]

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It was 1944, prisoner of war camp, 76 soldiers escape
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Stalag Luft 3. Australian writer
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Paul Brickhill wrote of that 1944 mass escape in 1950 in a book called
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The Great Escape. He wrote the book because he didn't escape with those other 76 men.
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He had claustrophobia and couldn't get out, so they kept him behind. Out of the 76 men that escaped that day in 1944, 73 were recaptured, 50 shot by the
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Gestapo immediately, four of the remaining 23 later tunneled out again of a new concentration camp, were recaptured and chained to the floor of their cells.
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One major, John Dodge, was released for a ceasefire. Three total made it home safely.
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Three out of 76. My question is, in light of Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26, it's appointed for man once to die and after this judgment, how do we get out alive?
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How do we make it out alive? John Bunyan, the man who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, said in light of it's appointed for man once to die and after that comes judgment, he said,
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I'm not willing to do the first, die, and I'm not able to do the second, withstand the judgment of God.
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How does anybody make it out alive? The greatest escape was not in 1944.
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The greatest escape is how do we escape death and hell and eternal punishment?
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And since that is such a relevant topic, please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews in the
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New Testament, the epistle to the Hebrews. And because of the Lord Jesus Christ, the high priest, everybody who trusts in him, 76 out of 76, make it all the way out.
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With a mediator, you make it out alive. Without the mediator, you don't. It's appointed for man once to die and after that comes judgment.
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But if you're trusting in the one who's received the judgment for you, you won't have to be judged.
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And for many of you Christians here today, you just want to revel in this great truth.
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You want to hear more about Christ Jesus. You don't want me to preach myself. You want to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ preached.
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And that's, of course, our theme. If you look at the front of your bulletin program, I think it says,
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Colossians 128, Him we proclaim. Come to Bethlehem Bible Church and you're sure to hear a message about the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the one who grants you, Christian, free forgiveness and grants people who are not
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Christians, I offer you eternal life through the death, burial, resurrection, life, exaltation of the
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Lord Jesus. Well, in our church, if you're here for the first time, we just go through books of the Bible, verse by verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
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And we're in the book of Hebrews today, Hebrews chapter 9.
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I would imagine this is about sermon 80 or so in the book of Hebrews, but who's counting, right?
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It's just another sermon about Jesus, whether I'm in the book of Jonah or the book of Ruth or the book of Hebrews.
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The thing about God is this. He wants people. He wants his image bearers.
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He wants created beings to approach him. It's not like he said, you know, no trespassing.
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You cannot approach. The thing about the Lord Jesus is in our triune God, he wants us to approach him, but we have to approach him on his terms.
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He is precise in his approach that he desires. He is exact. He is specific.
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And we just think, well, we can just come to the Lord on our own terms. And we forget that he is holy.
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And holiness means not only is he pure and ethically moral, but he's different.
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He's other. And so for us to have any access to God, for us to approach
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God, we have to do it on his terms because he is holy. And for us to get into his holy, holy, holy presence that we just sung about, we are going to have to have not our sin bar us from that.
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We're going to need the righteousness found in Christ Jesus, the holy one. He wants us to approach, but on his terms through Jesus alone.
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Exodus 15, it says, who among the gods is like you, O Lord, who is like you? Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders.
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Habakkuk speaks of God's holiness as well. Your eyes, God, are too pure to look upon evil.
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You cannot tolerate wrong. So in order for you to get to heaven and to have communion with God and have everlasting life, you're going to have to be holy in God's eyes.
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And we know because of what Adam did in the garden and our own sins, we are anything but holy.
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We are not ethically pure and nor we are we transcendent. And so we're going to need holiness from another one.
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God says, I am holy. You be holy. We're going to need holiness in order to be in God's presence.
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So we're working through this book that talks about the holy one of God, the Lord Jesus himself, and how he is the go -between, how he's the mediator.
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When you think of the word priest, maybe with your background, you think, well, I don't need a priest anymore. I go straight to God.
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In some sense, that's true. You can go straight to God, but it's always through a priest.
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It might not be a human priest with a backward collar who dispenses sacraments, but you're going to need a priest to stand before the thrice holy
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God and you, and that priest is going to have to be human so he can represent you, and he's going to have to be divine so he has enough righteousness to give you holiness so you may stand before God.
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And everything in this book is written so that you just understand who Jesus is. And the specific context is simple.
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It's Jewish people, hence the word, the epistle to the what? Hebrews. Very Jewish book written with the backdrop of Judaism, Old Covenant, Mosaic, Sinai, Old Testament stuff, and so now the writer is saying, listen, that was good.
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That was ordained by God. There's something to be said for that, but it couldn't get you to where you need to go.
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It couldn't get you to that great escape. It was a picture, type, photograph, sign, all pointing forward.
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So now that you have this Lord Jesus, let me tell you about him. Don't go running back to types and shadows and everything else.
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So what he does chapter after chapter after chapter in this sermon, this is the first sermon we have outside of Acts in all the
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Bible. We have an inspired sermon. By the way, if you read this sermon, guess how long it would take?
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How long should sermons be? If this is a prescription on how long sermons should be, I think
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I could probably read this at a fairly good speed. It would take about 44 minutes to read. How long do
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I try to preach? Ninety. Ninety. That is so not true. You need a high priest.
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That's what you need. It's not telling you have to preach this long.
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It's about a 45 -minute sermon or so, all extolling who Jesus is.
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And remember, for those of us that kind of come from this background, well, I don't want to make any waves, and I don't want to say anything critical, and I don't want to condemn anything, and I want to be known for what
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I'm for, not what I'm against. He is against everything that is against the Lord Jesus.
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And if you're going to run back to those things, He's going to say, Sorry, the Levitical priesthood that you loved you, it's gone.
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Sinai that you loved you, it served its purpose to point to, but don't run back to it as if it's
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God Himself. That's one of the things we have to learn as Christians. There are antichrists, and there's
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Christ. There are false apostles, and there are real apostles. There's truth, and there's error.
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I wanted to say something, but I don't mind any kind of kids. There's silence, and there's screaming.
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That's what I wanted to say, but I didn't say it, because I don't care. I'm glad young people are in here. He, in this book so far, has essentially said this,
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If you want to boil Judaism down, so you'll highlight Jesus and see Him as the one, you think of priesthood, sanctuary, and sacrifice.
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The priesthood of Jesus, not the Levitical priesthood, but Jesus. The sacrifice, not of bulls and goats, but of Jesus.
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The sanctuary, not on earth, but in heaven. If you want to boil everything down, that's the essence of his argument.
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And last chapter, he tried to say, well, he didn't try to say, but he said there's some discontinuity.
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There's some breakage. There's the old covenant, and then the new. And the old covenant was external.
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The new covenant is internal. The old covenant was done by priests. The new covenant is for you.
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But now he's going to have some overlap. He's going to have some continuity between old and new, and we're going to look at Hebrews 9, verses 1 through,
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I don't know how far we're going to get. I want to get through 1 through 5 today. I don't know if I can make it.
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Well, I could make it, but it would be the 90 -minute sermon. Okay. By the way, a side note.
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Many of you say to me, that sermon went by really fast today. Here's what's really happening.
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If you'll try to pay attention and follow along in your Bible, the sermon will go much faster.
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I'm not trying to condemn you. I mean, that's good, right? That tells me when somebody says, that sermon went by so fast today, it told me you're engaged and you're paying attention, and you're trying to listen.
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I mean, think about it. You watch TV. Every two seconds, there's a different camera angle change. It's just like ADD world, and then now you're going to have to sit and listen to me talk for 45 minutes from a book that's 2 ,000 years old.
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You have to try, and when you do, there's great reward, is there not? Chapter 9, verse 1, it says,
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Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.
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And it bears repeating, God has regulations for worship.
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He prescribes worship. That's why Presbyterians have something called the regulative principle.
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Scriptures regulate how you worship. We just don't say, well, do whatever. We'll just offer up strange fire in Leviticus 10, like Nadab and Abihu.
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There were regulations for worship back then. By the way, there's going to be regulations for worship now. And an earthly place of holiness.
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It was an earthly sanctuary. It was on earth. It was material.
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If you look back to chapter 8, verse 2, talking about Jesus the better priest, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the
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Lord set up, not man. He's pushing you to the future where it's not an earthly tabernacle.
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It's not on earth. It's not material, not geographic. It's in the person of the Lord Jesus. If you go to 924, he talks in a similar way about the
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Lord. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands. See, that's the old covenant.
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That's Sinai. That's Moses. Which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
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You need to learn, the writer of Hebrews says, about this Jesus Christ who's your high priest, not that guy who was born into the family of the
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Levites and killed animals in your place once a year in the place of holy of holies, but know you have the eternal son of God who's added humanity and is always your high priest.
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Take a look at verse 5, if you will, of chapter 9. I said there was some discontinuity between chapter 8's old covenant and new, but there's some continuity too.
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And you can tell that he hints at that in 9 .5. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
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Of these things, what he's just talked about in the first five verses, we cannot now speak in detail.
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Here's what he's doing. He's saying there's some things in the old covenant that are pictures of the
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Messiah, that are types of the Messiah, that are symbols of the
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Messiah, that prefigure the Messiah. There are things in the temple that now looking back into the
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Old Testament, you should say, I see why that's in there. Why lampstand? Why manna? Why urn? Why golden censer?
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Why ark of the covenant? Why the tablets? Why Aaron's rod? And so he's going to say, you know what,
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I could tell you about all those things and how they picture Jesus and have this kind of a dim reflection of who
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He is. And I want to highlight those. I want to show you when we work through this passage, and I'll give you the outline now.
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Things from the old covenant, items from the old covenant, designed to teach you about Jesus. And I have about,
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I don't know, seven or eight of those. Shadows, pointers, prefigurements, pictures of Jesus, the ultimate priest.
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Now I'm going to give you a warning. If you go back to the Old Testament and say, you know, what does the tent peg represent?
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The tabernacle. What does the tent peg represent in the tabernacle? Nothing. It's stability.
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It ties it down so it doesn't blow away in the wind. What does the blue pomegranate represent? It doesn't represent daddy.
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Those aren't good questions. Because not everything works when it comes to prefigurement.
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But hear what the writer of Hebrews says to the Hebrews. He says, let me show you what's in the holy place.
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Then let me show you what's in the holy of holies. And you're going to be able to look back now because you have subsequent revelation dealing with antecedent revelation.
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You have Hebrews informing Exodus. And you'll go, of course, that reminds me of who Jesus is.
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And so we're going to look at some of these things in the tabernacle. And you're going to say, you know what? Ultimate fulfillment
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Jesus. A great picture of who Jesus is. Now that I have the real Jesus, why ever go back?
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Pointers. Teaching spiritual principles. And while the lampstand couldn't cleanse, the person who is the light of the world can cleanse.
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It's going to be that type of thing. So let me give you the first item.
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And it's really the big item, the overarching item. And that is the tent, verse 2.
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For a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence.
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It's called the holy place. So you've got a tent, 45 feet long, 15 feet wide, 15 feet high.
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Two sections. This is the first section. So you go into the first part of the tent. What's in the tent?
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Well, let's not talk about what's in the tent yet. Let's talk about the tent itself. Why is he focused on the tent?
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And if I ask you, do you think anything about the tent when you think of the Lord Jesus? Is there anything in the
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New Testament that makes you think tent? I hope you say yes. Now what was a tent for?
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I think if you ask that question, it'll help you understand what this pre -picture was of the
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Lord Jesus when it comes to tent. One thing about tents is they're impermanent.
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And you set them up, you take them down, and then you move in the wilderness, and the pillar of light takes you to the next place, and off you go.
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But the tent was designed so that you might have a place for the presence of God. Yes, God is everywhere, and his glory fills the earth.
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But specifically, particularly, his glory was manifest there in the Holy of Holies in the tent.
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God wanted to have communion with the people. He wanted to have fellowship with the people in the tent. By the way, this word preparing the tent isn't pitching the tent.
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It isn't putting the tent up. It's preparing what's inside the tent. But that's not my focus right now.
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Keep your finger at Hebrews. Turn to John chapter 1 for a moment.
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And I know you know this, but still it's a thrill to look back at John 1. And I want you to be thinking the way the writer of Hebrews thinks.
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There are certain things that revolve around the holy place and the Holy of Holies that he could speak of in great detail that point to the
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Lord Jesus, but he kind of skips over them. But I'm fleshing this out for you because we are not that familiar with these items.
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He would know. They would know. We don't know so much, so I'm fleshing out what he takes for granted because it's 2 ,000 years later, and we are
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Westerners, and we speak different language. And the tent, when you think of tent, what does that make you think of?
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The presence of God, God with us, Emmanuel? Well, it says in the very beginning, in the beginning was the word,
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John 1, 1, and the word was with God, and the word was face to face with God.
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We're talking about God the Father and God the Son. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.
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And he gives this great genealogy, does he not, in John. Is there a genealogy for Gospel of Mark?
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No, because it's a servant. Is there a genealogy in the Gospel of Luke? Yes. Is there a genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew?
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Yes. Is there a genealogy in the Gospel of John? Yes, the divine genealogy.
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He's with God in the beginning, face to face, close fellowship. Now, here's the great part right here, verse 14.
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And the word became flesh, we're talking about Jesus, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
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Father, full of grace and truth. And that word dwelt among us, what's that word dwelt literally mean?
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He put up a tent. He pitched a tent. That is amazing.
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The word became flesh, and he's the tent of meeting. He's the place where God meets.
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He tabernacled among us. That is amazing that he might dwell among us.
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How does God dwell among us? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the purpose for the earthly tabernacle, the earthly tent.
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So there might be a place of worship where God was manifest, especially. Does that not make you think of the
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Lord Jesus? If there's only one tent, one access, of course the
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Lord has only one access. He put his tent up in our presence.
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Well, let's go back to Hebrews as we're thinking about now what's in this tent. Big picture, tent, you should think about Jesus tabernacling among us.
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What is in this first room? What's in the first part of the tent? This gives us our second covenant item designed to teach us something about Jesus as a shadow, as a pointer, as a sign, as a picture, not just tent but also now lampstand.
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Now there are lampstands and there are lampstands. Let me read to you something about this lampstand that's in the first part of the tent.
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So out in the wilderness, there's a big tent, and you go in the first part of the tent, and in this room that's curtained off, it's got something in there.
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The first thing he writes about is the lampstand. Here's how Exodus 25 describes it. You shall make a lampstand of pure gold, and the lampstand shall be made of hammered work.
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Its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.
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There shall be six branches going out of its side, three branches on the lampstand out of the one side of it and three branches of the lampstand on the other side of it.
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Three cups made like almond blossoms, each with a calyx and flower on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with a calyx and flower on the other branch.
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So for six branches going out of the lampstand. And then he goes on to say it shall be made out of a talent of pure gold.
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And I know what you're thinking. You go into a tent, a tent's dark, you don't have your iPhone, you can't get your flashlight out, you need to have light.
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That's what it means. As tent pegs are for stability, lampstands are for what? Light. Do you think that's what he means?
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Do you think that's what the writer of Hebrew means? It's just there's no window so you need some illumination so the priests know what to do?
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Listen to Revelation 21. The city has no need of the sun, we're talking about New Jerusalem, or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the
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Lamb. Turn to John chapter 8 and let's see if Jesus has anything to do with lights.
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Anything to do with lamps. So you've got a bunch of things in this tent. Do they point to anything?
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The writer of Hebrew says in 9 .5, I could tell you a lot about what they point up to, but he doesn't say. So I'm saying, to fill in the blanks for us, when you think of the lampstand,
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I want you to think of who Jesus is, and this is really brilliant. This is effulgent, if you will.
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One of the first things I learned when I was a preacher about the glory of God is you say the word effulgent. When do you ever say in real life effulgent?
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The effulgent glory of God. This is it right here. No understatement.
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John 8 .12, Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.
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He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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Now think big picture for a second. Jews don't run back to the... They didn't have the tabernacle at the time, but the temple was still up.
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Don't run back to the temple when Jesus is the light. Why would you go back to a lampstand when
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Jesus is the light of the world? Now here's the interesting thing about the lamp and Jesus being the light of the world.
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What does it say in John 7 .2? What was going on? What was the context? Context helps you understand, and context helps you, in this case, be very impressed by what
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Jesus did in the middle of a huge feast. 7 .2,
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now it was the feast of the Jews, the feast of booths. This was the annual festival, and it was a huge party, and it was wonderful, and you know what they would do?
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They would rejoice, and they would have singing, they would have people with torches, they would have people playing songs, and they would have four huge menorahs, candelabras, lampstands, brightening up Jerusalem.
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It's dark, but these huge lampstands, huge menorahs. Actually, that's what
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Josephus, the Jewish historian, said. Later additions to the ritual included libation of water drawn from the pool of Siloam, and the lighting of huge menorahs at the court of the women.
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Can you imagine? Here Jesus, with all these people around Him, and all these false teachers around Him, and all those followers around Him, and here are the four huge menorahs, and Jesus stands up and says what?
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I am the light of the world. What a backdrop. No wonder they went on to say this.
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Verse 13, You're testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true.
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And by the way, what I just did and showed you about being the lamp and the light of the world. For I know where I come from, and I know where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from, and you do not know where I am going.
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You judge according to the flesh. I'm not judging anyone. You've got the wrong plumb line and yardstick.
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Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it. But I am the Father who sent me. Verse 17,
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Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am
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He who testifies about myself. That's the first one. And secondly, the Father who sent me testifies about me.
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Now listen to what they say. Where's your father? You do not neither know me nor my father.
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If you knew me, you would know my father also. I know your background.
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And in Jews in those days and people in the Eastern cultures, how do you slur someone? Here's how we slurred someone in Nebraska growing up.
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Your mother wears what? Army boots. That's right. Maybe some mothers do.
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But that's what we said in Nebraska. To question somebody's paternity in those days was like spitting on them.
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I don't even know who your dad is. Where's your father?
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You're a bastard. That's what he's saying. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
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They wanted to do it, but in God's plan it had not yet happened. He said to them,
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I go away and you will seek Me and die in your sins. Where I am going you cannot come.
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Why? Because rejecting the light of the world, rejecting the lampstand, rejecting the One who caused the
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Feast of Booths, the One who is there protecting the Israelites in whom they're making the celebration. If you reject the only way to Heaven, Jesus Christ, you're damned.
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And they don't understand. Look at verse 22. Surely He'll not kill
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Himself, will He, since He says where I'm going you can't come. And the
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Jewish tradition was simple. You commit suicide, you go to the worst place. You go to the corners of hell.
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Hey, He's going someplace we can't go. We're going to Heaven. Where is He going? He's going to the bowels of hell.
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He's going to commit suicide. That's what He does. You are from below.
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I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you, verse 24, that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am
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He, or I am, you will die in your sins. Jesus will forgive all your sins.
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But if you reject that Jesus, you have no sin bearer. You have no Messiah. You have no high priest.
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He says in verse 34, does He not truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
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I mean, I hate it the way these people treat the Lord Jesus, these leaders, but deep down in my heart,
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I realize before God saved me and opened my mind, I was just like them. And look at what humanity does when
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Jesus says He's the only way. Verse 38,
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I speak these things that I have seen with my father. Therefore, you also do the things that you heard from your father. Uh -oh.
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Who's their father? Abraham is our father. If you're Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham.
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Like father, like son. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which
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I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.
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We were not born of fornication like you, Jesus. No father. We have one father,
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God. We're not the illegitimate ones. You are. And this little stunt you pulled with this light thing isn't going very far.
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If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come on my own initiative, but He sent me.
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Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father, the devil.
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And you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
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Whoever speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies.
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If you want to talk like father, like son, this is the exact case. And it gets crazier if you just even read it.
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I don't have to make many comments because the force of the text is just the craziness, the insidious nature of sin.
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Verse 47, He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God.
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Do we not say rightly that you're a Samaritan and have a demon? I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.
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But I do not seek my glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
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And he says in verse 58, Before Abraham was born, I am. And they picked up stones to throw at him, but he hid himself and went out of the temple.
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What a dramatic account. It's the Feast of Booths and Jesus shows up and says, I'm the light of the world.
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And they all knew what that meant. That his followers knew, yes, we have light and in him was the life and the light of men and he has eternal life.
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And he's pure and clean and he gives that and he's the one and he's the Messiah that was prophesied of.
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But those rejecting Jesus said basically, you have no father, you have a demon, and you're going to go commit suicide.
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And as you think about it, and as I look at it even in my own life, if we just stand back for a second congregation, is it not true?
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That's the way we were before God opened our eyes. We might not have said it that way and we know how to be sophisticated and we know how to talk at dinner parties and all that kind of stuff in ways that are less obtrusive and as long as that's good for you,
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I understand and it's good for you but not good for me and I have my own truth. But deep down in the heart of every person, it's this, ungodly, sinful enemies and left to themselves damnation.
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But the Lord Jesus sent by the Father, because the Father loves sinners. Jesus loves sinners. The Spirit of God applying this death of Christ as He loves sinners.
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Jesus comes and says, I'm the light of the world. And you're thinking some kind of little lamp stand in some tent as light dispels darkness in the tent and the place of worship where God meets men.
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Levitical priests only. Now Jesus says, it's not for the priest. It's not once a year. It's not for preparation to walk in there.
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It's not with the censors. It's not with everything else. I'm standing out at the feast telling one and everyone,
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I'm the light of the world. Trust in me. I offer free forgiveness. And on behalf of Jesus, I do the same for you.
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Christian, you have forgiveness. Unbeliever, you can despise Him. You can hate
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Him. You can think Jesus is a lunatic and a liar and demon possessed. But He's your only hope and even though you think that,
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He still offers you freely forgiveness. Who loves like that?
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Even this week when I officiated the wedding, I always asked the groom, why did you pick your wife to be?
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And they say things like, I'm trying to remember what Nathan said of Annika. She's a hard worker.
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She's beautiful. She loves her family and she's my dearest friend or something like that. Amen. What a great way to pick a wife.
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But Jesus loves sinners like these people are sinners. This is who we were.
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I mean, if we just needed a little polishing up and a little dusting off and some education, then
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Jesus doesn't have to die as a sacrifice in our place. The wages of sin.
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What do you think these people deserve? If Jesus is really true and right and the Holy God, what do these people deserve?
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You call Jesus a bastard, a demon possessed man who's going to commit suicide and go into the bowels of hell.
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What do you deserve? And what does He give?
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What does He give people like Nicodemus? What does
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He give people who try to kill His followers like Paul? What does
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He give people like us who maybe don't have awful unrighteous sins but self -righteous sins?
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Christians, we're here today to remember who Jesus is and you can see the seedbeds of who He is even in the holy place as He's the light of the world.
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And the only reason you see the light is God opened your eyes to see the light because that's still the condescending love of God where He makes you alive together in Christ Jesus.
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And if you have any inkling that Jesus is the Lord and Savior and you're trusting in Him, friend, that's enough.
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Because your faith doesn't have to be strong. The one in whom you trust has to be strong.
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You say, well, I'm struggling. I had my ups and downs, my relationship with my family and kids and husband and wife and this and that and the other.
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And I'm not as faithful as I wanted to be and as I could have been. And I'm really struggling this week. Friends, guess who didn't struggle this week?
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And I'm not talking about me. I couldn't think of a harder week for no particular reason and maybe every reason.
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But I'm here to tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ is strong and He's the light of the world. And you saw with your eyes of faith the
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Lord Jesus. And you used to say He was a good teacher. You could have just said
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He's a liar and has a demon. And now you say, I bow before Him. I trust in Him. He's my all in all.
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I sing His praises in the hymnals. I give to His local church through my offering.
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I want to hear about Him and that's what the writer of Hebrews does. That's what the writer
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John does. This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.
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If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sins.
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If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,
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He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make
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Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin.
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And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but also for those of the whole world.
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When you read the Old Testament, and you're like, why should I read Exodus? And it's so confusing. When you read about the tent, think about the
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One who put His tent among us. When you read about the lampstand, think about the light of the world.
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Is there anything else we could learn? Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 9. What about the showbread?
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There's something else in this first compartment. Showbread. What does that mean?
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Why would showbread be in there? Now the text says in Hebrews 9 .2,
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the tent was prepared. The first section, this is the holy place. This isn't the Holy of Holies yet.
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That's behind the other curtain. We've got a lampstand and then we've got and the table and the bread of presents.
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Now you might want to say, well, the second item is the table and the third is the bread of presents. But they really go together.
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The table of the bread of presents. And by the way, for those of you who are students of the
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English language, there's a special word for that in grammar.
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Hendiatus. May you be blessed. Hendiatus. When you put words together with an and, so it's not table and showbread, it's the table of the showbread.
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It's a hendiatus. Okay, you're not impressed with that?
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The Greek word for table is trapeza. You're thinking now, trapeza?
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Yes. Trapeza comes from tetra, which is four, and pisa, which is foot.
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P -E -Z -A. Four feet. You can try to figure out how trapeze has four feet and how that all works.
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But I can tell you typical tables have how many feet? Four feet, unless it's a three, unless it's a tripod.
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This just isn't a Greek word for table. It's got a... It's got whatever that top part's called.
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And four legs. It's made of acacia wood, three and three quarters feet long, two and a quarter feet wide, covered with pure gold.
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The table, the consecrated bread. Exodus 25, it says, you shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits shall it be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
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Shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make a rim around it, a hand breadth wide, and the molding of gold around the rim.
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And then he goes on, Moses, to describe how you make that particular show bread. And what happens is, and I'll read from Leviticus 25,
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Aaron would come in and put new bread on this table every week. It says, you shall,
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Leviticus 24, take fine flour and bake 12 loaves from it. Two -tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf.
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And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. So six and six.
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Why 12 total breads, show breads? January, February, March, April.
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No. Why 12? 12 tribes of Israel. And while I'm reading this to you, you're like, oh,
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I didn't know this part. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as the food offering to the
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Lord. Every Sabbath day, Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly. It is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.
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It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place. Remember, that's why David was not allowed to eat it, they thought, since it was for him a most holy portion out of the
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Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due. So now you have the bread of the presentation, the bread of the presence, 12 put on that table, representing the tribes of Israel, removed at the end of the week, eaten by the priests.
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Showing that God is present with the people. That was the idea. Now the reason why
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I'm going to so many Old Testament passages and back and forth is this. If I said to you, receiving this letter 2 ,000 years ago, now there's the tent and there's the holy place, and in it there's the lamp stand, and in it there's the show bread on the table, you'd immediately know all about it.
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But we don't know it as well, so I'm trying to make sure we get it. What does this have to do with?
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Well, we're going to pick that up with one of the other things in there, called manna, because it's going to represent the same thing.
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But we'll leave here with the fourth item, the curtain. Verse 3.
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Maybe we just introduced this subject, but it's a great one to end on. We're thinking about pictures and types and pointers and signs in the
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Old Testament, in the tent, that the writer says, I could talk about these a lot, but I'm going to get to who
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Jesus is. But we're filling in the blanks. Behind the second curtain, verse 3, was a second section called, the holy of holies, or the most holy place.
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So there's a curtain. And by the way, I don't know if you like curtains. I did not know curtains were so expensive.
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This would be a very important, expensive curtain. Listen to Exodus 26 describe this curtain.
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You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen.
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By the way, where do you go get these, is my point, back in those days. It shall be made with a cherubim skillfully worked into it.
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And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia, overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver.
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And you shall hang the veil from the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil.
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The veil shall separate you from the holy place, from the most holy. Now I know almost every one of you here, if I ask you the question, if we're thinking about types and shadows and pointers and pictorial representations of things going on there that might remind us of Jesus, what would the curtain remind us of?
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January, February, March. Hebrews 10 gives you the answer.
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Oh, this is so great. Hebrews 10 .19
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Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh.
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Remember when Jesus died on the cross? He cried out in a loud voice and gave up His spirit. And at that moment,
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Matthew 27, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
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Access to God, not just the high priest, not once a year, any time. And also if you want to think about it a little bit, not just so that we could come into His presence, but of course in the person and work of Christ Jesus, He could come out and not obliterate everyone because He was cloaked and veiled as glory was.
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So everyone would just not be incinerated when you looked at Jesus. Only for a moment did
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Peter, James, and John on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration see that glory of Jesus, that effulgent glory that came out of who
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He was. And now Jesus, cloaked with humanity, can walk among us. And so we not only have access to the
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Lord Jesus, He has access to us. Now to be clear,
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He's talking in Hebrews 9 about the curtain and the tabernacle. And when Jesus died, the tabernacle was no longer, it was the temple.
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But the principle still applies. From top to bottom is the curtain ripped, signifying God did the work and that God accepted the sacrifice of His Son for all those who would ever believe the shedding of blood was sufficient for the atonement for sinners.
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How do you get into the holiness of God? How do you get into the presence of God? How do you escape? What's the great escape?
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How do I get out alive? It has to be, friends, by trusting in the finished work of the risen
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Savior, Jesus Christ. No wonder Hebrews says we approach
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Him with confidence and boldness. Yes, sinful Christian. Yes, Christian who's going through a difficult time.
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Yes, Christian who has not lived up to your position in Christ. The veil has been torn.
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You have access to God. And you say, God, please forgive me. I come as your child. I come as your daughter.
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I come as your son. And I'm thankful that I have access to you because of my
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Savior. Well, there's more to come that reminds us about Jesus.
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It's appointed for man once to die and after that comes judgment. And John Bunyan said,
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I'm not willing to do the first and not able to do the second. And Jesus was willing to do the first and did and was able to accept the judgment of God and did.
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And He's your Savior. Father in heaven, we praise your name for our
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Lord Jesus, the light of the world who tabernacled among us. In His name we pray.